As Community Policing Forum (CPF) members spend hours on end on the road, catching a person for a crime makes the time on the road worthwhile.
On Sunday, February 28 in the evening Mr Daan du Toit, the Vice Chairman of the CPF was patrolling around Midas area when he stopped at the petrol station nearby.
He noticed that a person from Limpopo put petrol into his vehicle, and then the card machine was brought over to him. That’s when he swiped his card a couple of times.
It never went through, so he allegedly just jumped into his vehicle and drove away from the petrol station.
Du Toit asked the petrol attendant what happened and he explained, immediately he called for back up and phoned the flying squad.
Once Du Toit got into his vehicle, he started chasing the suspect at that stage.
They managed to track the suspect down at the back of Midas in the parking lot.
As the suspect had his children with him in his car, he was given an option to pay for the petrol or he would be arrested.
He was taken to an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) where he withdrew the money and paid for the petrol.
“It feels good to arrest or stop a criminal and it makes up for all the long hours we spend on the road patrolling,” said Du Toit.
In a separate incident the previous weekend on Saturday, February 20 the sector 4 CPF members received a call from a security guard at a well known shopping centre that there was a person walking around the area with a firearm.
Gert van Tonder responded to the call first, that’s when he called for back up.
They approached the BMW that was parked in the parking lot; the suspect first denied that he had a firearm. Then they searched the vehicle and found an illegal firearm with ammunition.
The suspect was arrested and appeared in Witbank Magistrates Court.
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Witbank CPF sê dankie
